Title: Unit II A Growing America Chapter 18 Section 1 Americans Move West
1Unit II A Growing AmericaChapter 18Section 1
Americans Move West
- Miners, Ranchers, Cowboys and the Railroad
- Lecture Station
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4Miners, Ranchers, and Railroads
- The Big Idea
- As more settlers moved West, mining, ranching,
and railroads soon transformed the western
landscape. - Main Ideas
- A mining boom brought growth to the West.
- The demand for cattle created a short-lived
Cattle Kingdom on the Great Plains. - East and West were connected by the
transcontinental railroad.
5Main Idea 1 A mining boom brought growth to the
West.
- Americans continued to move west during the
1800s. - The American frontier.
- Settlers built.
- Railroads
- Mining companies
6Mining in the West
Comstock Lode in Nevada.
Miners
Boomtowns
Mining was dangerous.
7Gold Fever
- Sam Brannan- a San Francisco merchant
8- No expression characterized the California gold
rush more than the words "seeing the elephant."
9Entrepreneurs
- Sam Brannan-
- Levi Straus-
- Phillip Armour-
- John Sudebaker-
- Wells and Fargo
10Main Idea 2 The demand for cattle created a
short-lived Cattle Kingdom on the Great Plains.
- The increasing demand for beef
- Cattle ranchers in Texas drove herds
- Cattle Kingdom -Texas to Canada.
- open range.
- Competition, barbed wire, and the loss of prairie
grass.
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12Ranching Culture
Ranching on the Plains
Cattle Drives
Ranching as Big Business
13Cowboys
- Cowboys
- vaqueros, who were Mexican ranch hands.
- cattle drive.
- The Chisholm Trail.
- Life in cattle towns was often rough and violent.
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15Cowboys
16Cowboys- Myths or Truth
- 1) The Cowboy Life was Glamorous.
- Myth or Truth?
Myth- 18 hour days and the long trail drive were
boring
17Cowboys- Myths or Truth
- 2) Most cowboys had small or medium frames
- Myth or Truth?
Truth- large men were to heavy to ride the
mustangs
18Cowboys- Myths or Truth
- 3) The Cowboy would ride his favorite horse all
day. - Myth or Truth?
Myth- Cowboys would ride a string of horses
depending the task at hand. Mild horses at
night, and quick horses for daylight roping and
driving.
19Cowboys- Myths or Truth
- 4) Many Cowboys were Mexican or African
American. - Myth or Truth?
Truth- 1/6th of cowboys were Mexican and many
were African/American, Former Confederates and
even Native American.
20Cowboys- Myths or Truth
- 5) Most Cowboys were older experienced
wranglers. - Myth or Truth?
Myth- Most were young men who learned on the job.
21Cowboys- Myths or Truth
- 6) Women could not be cowboys.
- Myth or Truth?
Myth- Several women owned cattle ranches and ran
their own cattle drives.
22Cowboys- Myths or Truth
- 7) Cowboys often had to fight off native
Americans. - Myth or Truth?
Myth- Cowboys rarely if ever fought with Native
Americans
23Cowboys- Myths or Truth
- 8) The word Cowboy was invented in Texas.
- Myth or Truth?
Myth- The word Cowboy comes from the Spanish
word Vaquero
24Cowboys
- The word cowboy is actually a Spanish word,
"vaquero." The name Cowpoke comes from the end
of the cattle drive when the cowboys had to push
the cattle onto the trains with a stick or prod.
25Long Horns
26Cattle Raising
- "the open range" - public land open to anyone who
used it for cattle grazing - periodic roundups to
brand and gather cattle for slaughter or market. - A less known aspect of "cowboying" was
mustanging.
27Cattle Drives
- 1866- A Steer worth 4 in Texas sold for 40 in
the East. - Need to drive a herd to a railroad town
- Major trails- Chisholm, Goodnight Loving, Western
and Sedalia. - Drive lasted 3 months
- 10-12 miles per day.
- 2/3 of cowboys were teenagers between the ages of
12-18. - Conflict over the open range.
28Cattle Drives
29Branding
30Saddle and Ropes
31Clothing - Cowboy Hat and Boots
32Cowboy Life
- 1/3 of the cowboys were former slaves and most of
the others were former confederate soldiers. - Music.
- A cowboy worked 15 hours a day for .80 a day.
- Son of a Gun stew was the favorite meal
- Cowboys didnt actually kiss their horses,
33Cowboys in the Movies
34Main Idea 3East and West were connected by the
transcontinental railroad.
- The growth of the West created a need for
communication across the country. - The Pony Express
- Telegraph lines
- Demand for a transcontinental railroad grew.
- Congress passed the Pacific Railway Acts of 1862
and 1864, - The railroads agreed to carry mail and troops at
a lower cost.
35Pony Express
36Pony Express
- Riders Between 80 and 100
- Salary 100 per month
- Qualifications Age ranged from 11 to mid 40s.
Riders had to weigh less than 125 lbs. One of the
most famous was Buffalo Bill Cody - Youngest Rider Legend has it that Bronco Charlie
Miller was eleven years old when he rode for the
Pony Express. - Riders Changed 75 to 100 miles.
- Horses Changed 10 to 15 miles.
- Speed of Rider Average 10 miles per hour.
- Horses About 400 Mustangs and Morgans
- Stations Estimated between 150 and 190 of them.
Located every 5 - 20 miles. - Mochila Saddlebag designed especially to carry
mail on the eastern end were made by Israel
Landis. - Route 1966 miles from St. Joseph, Missouri to
Sacramento, California. Crossed Missouri River
by Ferry boat, at the foot of Francis
Street.Time 10 days. - Quickest Run 7 days and 17 hours. The riders
were carrying President Lincoln's Inaugural
Address. - Total Miles Covered Approximately 650,000 miles.
- Longest Ride Pony Bob Haslam. rode 370 miles --
Friday Station to Smith Creek Station and back
again. - Cost of Mail 5 per 1/2 ounce at first. Later,
the price was 1 per 1/2 ounce.
37Transcontinental Railroad
- Union Pacific and Central Pacific.
- 6 1/2 years to complete
- Union Pacific from Omaha, Neb.
- Central Pacific from Sacramento, California.
- May 10, 1869- Promontory Point, Utah east and
west linked. Trade, jobs, and settlement.
38Railroads expand and gird the nation
- Land grants
- Two miles on either side of track. The railroad
got every other square mile to sell and use for
building.
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40Standard Time
- Time
- Each town had its own time according to the sun.
- Using local time caused confusion between cities.
- Being on time could stop fatal collisions.
- Decided to have railroad time be Standard Time-
4 time zones across the nation and marked on maps - Adopted in 1918
41Standard Gauge
- Gauge
- 1860- 350 different railroad companies and 30,000
miles of track. - No national network- many railroad had different
gauge (distance from one rail to the other.) - 11 different gauges
- This caused a lot of changing of railroad cars.
- 1869 transcontinental railroad used 4feet 8 1/2
inches - This became the standard gauge.
42Results of the Railroad
Growth
- Economic growth and population in the West
increased. - Railroads provided better transportation for
people and goods - They also encouraged people to move west.
- Railroads became one of the countrys biggest
industries.
Panic of 1873
- Railroad speculation increased.
- The collapse of railroad owner Jay Cookes
banking firm helped start the Panic of 1873. - Many small western railroads were deeply in debt
by the 1880s.
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